Llewellyn, Karl

Llewellyn, Karl (Nickerson) (1893–1962) legal scholar; born in West Seattle, Wash. He taught at the law schools of Yale and Columbia University (1930–51) before joining that of the University of Chicago (1951– 62). His specialty was unifying state laws and he helped write the Uniform Commercial Code, but he also became an authority on Native Americans' law. He wrote several books setting forth his broader approach to the law, one that stressed the common law and drew on sociology and anthropology—what he called "realistic jurisprudence": The Bramble Bush (1930); The Cheyenne Way (with E. A. Hoebel, 1941); and a collection of essays, Jurisprudence: Realism, Theory and Practice (1962).